While a concept scooter unveil at the Vietnam Motorcycle Show isn’t exactly what one would call headline grabbing, but this one is worth a look (and a read). The 04Gen is the latest from Yamaha’s line of ‘Gen’ concepts, its attempt at trying to figure out how would people move from one place to another in the future. Thinking on these lines, Yamaha had come up with a trio of trikes, the 01Gen, 02Gen and 03Gen concepts. For the fourth in this series, they decided to keep it a bit more conventional…only in the number of wheels involved.
The 04Gen seems to be more of a design exercise with a lot of experimentation done in the types of materials used and the manner in which they are used. At first glance it looks like another one of those retro-themed scooters, which are a dime a dozen these days.
But move to side, that is where it earns its future mobility credentials. Instead of traditional plastic panels, Yamaha has used translucent panels on the front mudguard, front body panel and rear side-panels. The panels themselves have patterns moulded in them, such serving as design elements. The rear side panels can also hinge up and look like a pair of wings attached to the scooter, which can be put down to show-bike extravagance. But the attractive part is the general shape of the scooter aft the seat, with the long rear mudguard resembling that of a cruiser
The most innovatively designed feature though, is the headlight and console area. While the console seems to have eliminated by what looks like a smartphone, the headlight is nothing but LED bulbs mounted on a metal surround. Yamaha did not give any details about what it was powered by, and while we wont be coming out of showrooms with translucent-winged scooters anytime soon, some of the design elements might find its way into regular production model soon.
